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Haryana polls: Parties ignore huge vote bank, just six ex-servicemen in fray

Chandigarh: Haryana constitutes just 2% of the country’s total population but has been contributing around 10% of the total strength of India’s armed forces. However, political parties have given a short shrift to military veterans in the assembly polls slated for October 21. Only six ex-servicemen have been fielded as candidates for the 90-seat state assembly.



The state has around one lakh service voters, including members of military and paramilitary forces, who will exercise their franchise in the assembly polls. Around 2.84 lakh retired soldiers and 86,000 widows of former soldiers in the state add to the defence fraternity, making it a strong vote bank. Six Haryana districts — Rohtak, Jhajjar, Charkhi-Dadri, Bhiwani, Rewari and Gurgaon — form the hub of ex-servicemen and serving soldiers.

The incumbent BJP has fielded sitting minister Captain Abhimanyu from Narnaund in Hisar and Congress has fielded Maj Nirpender Sangwan from Dadri and Ramkishan Fauji, a former Army jawan from Bawani Khera in Bhiwani district. Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) has fielded Fauji Ramesh Palri, an ex-serviceman from Mahendergarh seat, apart from dismissed BSF constable Tej Bahadur Yadav from Karnal. Swaraj India has also fielded former Indian Air Force officer Sanjeev Godara from Dadri assembly seat. INLD, which had fielded two ex-servicemen in Lok Sabha polls from Rohtak and Bhiwani, has not fielded any veteran in the state assembly polls.

Captain Ajay Yadav, senior Congress leader who used to contest from Rewari, got his son Chiranjeev Rao, son-in-law of RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, fielded as the Congress nominee from the constituency this time.

According to political experts, such high number of defence sector electors in the state assembly will play a decisive role considering the close fight on some seats. It was only because of the clout of armed forces in the state, BJP had sent Lt Gen D P Vats, a noted ophthalmologist and former director and commandant of prestigious Armed Force Medical College Pune, to Rajya Sabha.

The craze of Haryanvis for armed forces has also led the Union government to decide to set up one more Sainik School at Matanhail town of Jhajjar district in Haryana. Already two Sainik Schools are functioning in the state at Kujpura in Karnal and in Rewari. With the setting up of the third school, Haryana would become the country’s only state to have three such schools.

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